Trump government shake-ups meet court blocks

A US judge has kept his block on President Donald Trump's buyout plan for federal employees in place while he considers whether to impose it for a longer period of time.

The decision by US District Judge George O'Toole in Boston prevents Trump's administration from implementing the buyout plan for now, giving a temporary victory to labour unions that have sued to stop it entirely.

More than 2 million federal civilian employees had faced a midnight deadline to accept the proposal. It is unclear when O'Toole will rule on the request by the unions.

The buyout effort is part of a far-reaching plan by Trump and his allies to reduce the size and rein in the actions of the federal bureaucracy. Trump, who returned to the presidency on January 20, has accused the federal workforce of undercutting his agenda during his first term in office, from 2017-2021.

Unions have urged their members not to accept the buyout offer - saying Trump's administration cannot be trusted to honour it - but about 65,000 federal employees had signed up for the buyouts as of Friday, according to a White House official.

The offer promises to pay employees their regular salaries and benefits until October without requiring them to work, but that may not be ironclad. Current spending laws expire on March 14 and there is no guarantee that salaries would be funded beyond that point.

At a court hearing, US Justice Department attorney Eric Hamilton called the buyout plan a "humane off-ramp" for those frustrated by Trump's decision to reduce the size of the workforce and end the ability of many of them to work from home.

But a lawyer for the unions said the plan had been carried out in a "slap dash" fashion with little regard to how it might disrupt operations at agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"They failed to consider the continued functioning of government," lawyer Elena Goldstein said.

Trump has tasked Tesla CEO and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, the world's richest person, with overseeing the purge of federal employees through his "Department of Government Efficiency," which is not an actual government agency.

Musk's actions have sown panic among federal workers and prompted public protests. His actions also have led to a flood of calls to US lawmakers by voters worried about the access that Musk's team has been given to sensitive information in government computer systems.

On Saturday, a judge temporarily blocked Musk's entity from accessing government systems used to process trillions of dollars in payments at the Treasury Department.

Musk aides have taken up senior positions at key government agencies while the billionaire has pushed for the dismantling of others, including USAID, the US humanitarian and development aid agency.

Another Trump lieutenant, White House budget director Russell Vought, has ordered the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, an independent federal agency created after the 2008 global financial crisis, to cease its activities.

The unions and Democratic attorneys general have brought lawsuits challenging Trump's rapid remaking of government and won some initial victories. A union has filed a lawsuit seeking to block Vought's actions, one of several legal challenges that Trump's administration now faces.

On Monday a judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration's sharp cuts to federal grant funding for universities, medical centres and other research institutions.

An effort to hollow out the US Agency for International Development is partially on hold after a judge's ruling.

Trump's effort to freeze trillions of dollars in federal loans, grants and other financial assistance has also been paused in a separate case. A federal judge in Rhode Island on Monday ruled that the administration must restore all domestic funding while he considers the case.